Nonprofit Issues Guidance on How to Report on Maine’s Tribes

Maine’s Wabanaki Alliance has issued a new set of “guidelines” for how journalists should discuss the state’s tribes in news reporting, including a request that news outlets perform so-called “racial equity audits.”

[RELATED: Tribal Officials Sought Censure of Skowhegan Rep for Criticizing Tribal Courts…]

“At times, its recommendations may run counter to established journalistic norms, and that is because this style guide purposely represents Indigenous perspective and expertise,” said the Wabanaki Alliances in their new guidelines.

The tribes’ guidelines include a list of five demands for journalists, which are then further broken down into sub-demands.

The first category demands that all journalists writing about Maine’s tribes “name tribes and people correctly.”

The guidelines request that reporters do not use generic terms like “the tribes” and particularly not possessive language such as “Maine’s tribes,” when discussing Maine’s tribes.

This includes identifying the individual tribes discussed, or, if referring to all of Maine’s tribes, to referring to them as “the Wabanaki Nations in Maine.”

Maine has four tribal communities that are recognized by the federal government: the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, Penobscot Nation, and the Passamaquoddy Tribe. The Passamaquoddy Tribe includes the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkomikuk (Indian Township Reservation) and the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik (Pleasant Point Reservation). 

[RELATED: Janet Mills Blows Off Historic “State of the Tribes” in Snub of Maine’s Indigenous Peoples…]

The first guideline also condemns the use of generic terms such as Native Americans, native peoples, or indigenous peoples, but, interestingly, does not condemn the use of the term “Indians” to refer to tribal people.

The second rule requires that all stories related to Wabanaki tribes include historical and geographical context about the way tribal borders came to be and their locations.

[RELATED: Taxpayer-Funded “Place Justice Project” Bemoans “Problematic” Place Names in Maine…]

The Wabanaki Alliance also told journalists to cover stories about federal policy relating to tribes across the country, even when those policies do not affect Maine’s tribes.

They also warned reporters not to refer to any tribal artifacts as belonging to Maine.

Third, the tribes asked that journalists use both “available and unavailable data when drawing conclusions.”

That rule asks journalists to acknowledge data gaps in tribal related information, which often isn’t available, although it is unclear what conclusions they expect journalists to draw from unavailable data.

Rule four asks anyone writing an article related to Maine’s tribes to get comments from approved tribal experts.

The Wabanaki alliance provides a list of official tribal groups, including the alliance itself, which it considers the approved sources for journalists to contact for tribal stories.

Finally, the fifth main demand asks media outlets to conduct “racial equity audits.”

These audits would examine the “quality and quantity” of Wabanaki related stories, and would allegedly show readers that the outlet cares about tribal issues.

The Wabanaki alliance also asked news outlets to keep a running tally of how well they are doing in covering tribal issues.

[Editor’s note: The Maine Wire immediately conducted a racial equity audit using our in-house experts and we earned an A+]